The classic film Brief Encounter owes its origins to Noel Coward's short play, Still Life, that features as the main course in this double bill.

Although set in the post-war period it is played straight and without a hint of parody. Gone are the clipped tones of voice that one remembers from the film and in their place are characters in this love story that are believable to a modern audience.

As well as the doomed love affair of the middle class Laura and the doctor who meet by accident in a railway refreshment room, the play is counter-pointed with two periphery relationships young love and late love.

The production is sheer delight with strong performances from an excellent cast.

Alex Childs is astonishing as Laura, managing as she does to convey through looks and body language both the naivety and the strength of her love as well as the angst of the illicit relationship.

As an appetiser to the main fare of the evening, one of the five pieces that makes up Alan Ayckbourn's Confusions is served up.

As with most of Ayckbourn's plays a theatrical device is employed. In this case the dialogue of the two couples dining in the restaurant is only audible when the waiter is serving them.

As both couples are having blazing rows the effect is quite comic with the waiter being quietly solicitous and oblivious to the discord.

This light piece was well played by a cast that served their director well.

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